Hicks & Company was part of a consulting team retained by TxDOT to complete a feasibility study, as an ISTEA demonstration project, of the possible extension of I-27 south of Lubbock to I-10 and north of Amarillo to the Texas-Oklahoma border. Phase 1 of the study consisted of an engineering, economic, and environmental analysis of several alternative routes. Hicks & Company performed constraints analyses and environmental mitigation cost estimates for several alternative routes. Phase 2 of the study focused on prioritizing roadway improvements in five corridors, two north of Amarillo and three south of Lubbock. The culmination of Hicks & Company’s work in Phase 2 was an “Overview Environmental Assessment”, which describes existing conditions within the five corridors and provides a preliminary assessment of impacts of each of the priority improvements identified in the study. The challenge in producing this five-volume document, whose study area encompasses 55 counties and more than 160,000 square miles of West Texas, was to provide information on environmental conditions and potential impacts that is detailed enough to be of benefit to future users within scope and budgetary constraints. Hicks & Company’s success in meeting this challenge was demonstrated by its receipt of the Consulting Engineers Council of Texas 1998 Engineering Excellence Award for Best Environmental Project.